


i'm willing to wait for it, i'm willing to wait for you

by ThePackWantstheD



Series: Rambling Headcanon Fics [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Headcanon, M/M, Reunions, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-26 06:03:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15657243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: Lance McClain is hard to hate.He’s easy to love.or: James Griffin falls fast and hard for a charismatic cargo pilot, dates him for six months, and then waits for him for five years.





	1. hard to hate, easy to love

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't really fic so much as it is a the overly long, rambling headcanons that I wrote edited and stuck in one place for easy access since it's gotten a bit ridiculous length-wise. But I'd still love to hear opinions on it!

Griffin  _hates_ Keith Kogane. 

Griffin had known he wanted space and the garrison his entire life. He kept his record clean and his head low, had done everything possible to make sure he had the best shot at becoming a pilot. And then Keith Kogane had swept in having done none of the work that Griffin did and got the attention of Griffin’s hero. 

It’s easy to hate Keith Kogane. 

It should be easy to hate Lance McClain too. Lance might not excel the way Keith did, but he spits in the face of everything Griffin has worked for in the same way that Keith does. He’s too loud, too arrogant. 

But… Lance McClain is hard to hate. 

Lance doesn't get everything easily and effortlessly the way Keith Kogane does. 

Instead he works for it with a single-minded focus that Griffin can’t help but admire.

Lance is a better pilot than any of them, there’s a reason he was at the top of the cargo pilots, but he’s familiar with a different kind of machine and an entire year behind the rest of them in training. And yet, despite his inexperience, he takes risks and tries moves that would save his crew. Or...they would if he could just figure out how to pull them off. His strategies and tactics are sound, are  _good_ , but Lance doesn’t have the experience to pull them off just yet. It doesn't help that Hunk, while a great mechanic, keeps puking in the middle of simulations and that Pidge, while a great communications officer, is rarely actually focused on communications.

But it’s obvious to anyone that pays attention that Lance is going to pass them all one day, is going to be a better pilot than most of them can even dream of being. Even Iverson knows it - compares Lance to Keith in a way that he never compares the rest of them and pushes Lance because Lance _needs_ to be able to handle anything if he’s going to become the pilot he's capable of being. 

Lance’s loudness should be off-putting, but instead it’s magnetic. He’s friendly and kind and charismatic. His pick-up lines are terrible for flirting, but they are great for bringing up someone that's feeling low. They laugh and they tease, because they're teenagers and sometimes they speak before they think, but the entire cargo class and half the fighter class is wrapped around his finger, pulled into Lance's thrall.

And Lance is loyal, almost to a fault. He should’ve gotten a completely new team when he moved into fighter class, but instead he refused to train without Hunk Garrett as his mechanic and only let their communications officer go when he said that he didn’t  _want_ to work on a fighter. 

Lance is hard to hate. 

He’s easy to love. 

 

Griffin nursed a crush on him throughout their first year, watching the cargo pilot from across the cafeteria. Back then it was just a crush, an admiration for Lance’s gorgeous eyes and the soft beauty of his skin and the way he made lanky somehow look elegant. Back then it was about a boy who yelled absurd pick-up lines across the cafeteria to his friends, lines that Griffin couldn't help smiling when he heard, and whose friends had to walk a foot away from him because he was so absurdly passionate that walking any closer meant risking getting a hand slapped against their face. 

It becomes much, much more when Keith gets kicked out of the program and Lance moves into Fighter class.

Once their in the same class, Griffin is directly exposed to Lance’s charm. Lance flirts with him endlessly and Griffin knows he isn’t special, knows that Lance flirts with everyone, but it’s easy to fall for pretty brown eyes, a soft smile, and a caring heart. It’s easy to fall for the boy who always seems to notice when Griffin is too caught up in his head, too focused on his dreams and frustrated they seem so far away, and always sits to talk to him despite Griffin being snappy, bad company. 

It’s easy to fall for a boy like Lance, so Griffin falls fast and hard. 

But Griffin has never been afraid to work for what he wants so he goes for it.

And when Lance says yes to a date, looking surprised when Griffin first asks and then relaxing when Griffin doesn't back down, he throws himself into planning for it. 

Griffin's plans end up being a disaster - the bus from the Garrison to the city has some kind of malfunction and arrives an hour late which makes them miss their movie, so then try agree to eat early and catch a later showing but the late bus meant that they were trying to eat during the lunch rush and the restaurant they agreed on was packed. The whole thing sucks and Griffin is convinced that he’s not getting a second date out of it.

But then Lance takes his hand, laughing about everything, and picks up the pieces. He pulls Griffin to the Aquarium across the city and Griffin spends the hours admiring the way Lance looks when he’s smiling at sharks, face highlighted by the blue glow emanating from the tanks.

He gets a second date. 

And a third and a fourth. 

Before he knows it, a year has passed by since Lance joined the fighter program and the two of them have been together almost half of that time.

Then one morning Griffin goes to the room Lance shares with his teammates, because he always wakes up before Lance and picks up coffee for the two of them from coffee cart in the cafeteria and walks to class with Lance, only to find that none of them are there.

It’s not strange for Lance to sneak out without Griffin, usually they go together but sometimes Griffin is too stuck in his head to be much fun so Lance and Hunk go in town without him, but it's that Lance left without telling him. It's even stranger that Lance isn’t back yet. 

He waits, for a while, but he doesn't _want_ there to be something wrong. So he holds onto a tiny, feeble hope that Lance just got up early, or maybe never went to sleep, and forgot to tell him. He goes to class, hoping that he'll walk into the class and see Lance already sitting in their usual seats.

Lance is not in class. 

Lance doesn’t show up for class at all that week.

He doesn’t answer any of Griffin’s text messages or phone calls either. 

That weekend the Garrison announces that three of it’s students are missing - Hunk Garrett, Pidge Gunderson, and Lance McClain.


	2. fall apart, but then pick up the pieces

Lance is gone and Griffin kinda falls apart for a while because yeah they’d only been together for six months but the fact of the matter is that he was kind of stupidly in love with Lance already.

It was easy to love Lance, after all. 

_And somewhere in the universe, Coran is saying “And now the most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron.  Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron.” And Lance sees two images - the two things he’s been missing the most -  his family laid out in front of him and then, for just a moment, the image of Griffin leaning in for a kiss. “Come on, everyone, clear everything. Now, focus on forming your lion.” The image flickers and fades._

 

 

Griffin doesn't do so hot for a few months, but eventually he dries his tears and squares his shoulders.

Because Lance might be gone, but Griffin is here.

If Lance can’t become the pilot that he was meant to be, than Griffin is going to work his ass off and make sure he achieves both of their dreams. If Lance isn't here to touch the stars, than Griffin will become the best pilot possible and touch enough for both of them. 

_And somewhere in the universe, Hunk is hearing that Lance has been handcuffed to a pole after taking an alien for a ride in Blue._ _When they have a moment to themselves, Hunk looks at him, soft but confused, and asks, “What about Griffin?” because this is more than harmless flirting with an alien princess and Lance’s eyes go sad, go dark, and he murmurs, “I thought it would hurt less if I stopped thinking about him.” And Hunk asks, softness tainting with sad understanding, “Did it work?” And Lance shakes his head._ _Instead of a proper answer, he says, “Blue would blow Griffin’s mind.”_

 

 

Griffin has always been dedicated to school, but now he throws himself into it with an all new kind of intensity. He rockets through the ranks, tops the fighter course before anyone else knows what’s going on. He has always been near the top, but now he blows the entire class away in a way that he never did before. He leaves them eating his dust without even a moment of consideration.

It’s easy to do now that he doesn’t go to town, too afraid of wandering near the Aquarium and remembering a boy who loved the sea. 

_And somewhere in the universe, Lance is fishing through a fountain in a space mall and trying not to think about earth malls. He’s trying not to think about dragging Griffin around the mall, trying not to think about a boy who wears a serious face at school but who softens outside of the military constraints, trying not to think of a warm hand, calloused from hours in the simulations in his, and quiet laughter in his ear._

 

 

A year goes by. 

Griffin graduates. He’s chosen by Iverson, along with three others, for a special position. He makes himself at home with them. He learns to handle Kinkade’s silence and Rizavi’s teasing smiles and the way that Leifsdottir is smarter than all of them combined.

_And somewhere in the universe, Lance defeats the monsters that alien boys and girls fear. He misses his family fiercely, but he makes a family of his own with four humans, two aliens, and five mechanical lions._

 

 

No one asks him about Lance, despite them having been in school with them and everyone in school having known about Griffin and Lance. He’s thankful for it. Because Griffin knows it’s stupid to wait for a boy that’s been missing as long as Lance has, but he can’t stop. Because Lance was everything Griffin wanted and Griffin has never known how to give up on what he wants. 

_And somewhere in the universe, Lance is surrounded by people who don’t know that he had a relationship on earth. Pidge and Hunk do, because they had roomed with him for the entire relationship. But Pidge is too concerned with finding her family to ask Lance about it and Hunk eventually learns that Lance is going to run every time he starts a conversation about Griffin. He lets Keith and Allura attack him for flirting his way through the galaxies, never tells them that his flirting his harmless because Lance is homesick for his family and heartsick for the boy he left behind._

 

 

Then Samuel Holt comes back to Earth.

Griffin doesn’t know who the paladins of Voltron are. Not until the debrief that comes after Samuel Holt has already seen the ships that the Garrison wants Griffin and his crew to fly. The second someone says that the Paladins are the missing Garrison students, Griffin, who has been the picture of military excellence since Lance’s disappearance, breaks protocol, says without prompting, “All of them?”

He feels his team look at him, all understanding what this means to him. 

And Samuel Holt looks at him, confused, and says, “Yes. Hunk Garrett, Lance McClain, and Pidge Gunderson, which was an alias for my daughter Katie, are all paladins of Voltron.”

And Griffin breaths out, relieved and shaken and happier than he thought he could ever be, “Lance is  _alive.”_

_And somewhere in the Universe, Lance is being told that they’re going to back to Earth. And he's thinking about his family, about seeing his brothers and sister and cousins and nieces and nephews and grandparents and his mother and father. And then he thinks, Griffin. I’ll get to see Griffin again._


	3. waiting, waiting, waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I’m a lil iffy on time and it shows here - I think about five years have passed for most of the paladins (basically everyone but Shiro who was dead and Keith who spent a couple years in a time vortex or whatever)? The 1 between seasons one through six, the 3 that make up the time jump, and the 1.5 that Coran and Pidge said it would take to get to Earth in the first episode or two?

Sam Holt tells Griffin that Lance is out there,  _safe and alive._

Griffin’s love for Lance hasn’t changed, but there’s something about knowing - about not surviving on wishes and hopes - that strengths him.

He worries, of course, because apparently Lance is a  _fucking paladin of Voltron_ and is on some quest to defeat a race of aliens that have been conquering planets since before human civilization existed, but Griffin has always had faith in Lance. He has always known what Lance was capable.

So he worries, but he also holds onto a firm faith that Lance will be okay, that Lance will make it back to Earth with the other Paladins.

And waiting is the easiest thing in the world when Griffin has faith and confidence.

 

 

A year goes by, a year of training and flying alien spaceships and knowing that Lance is out there.

Colleen and Sam Holt release the tapes that the Paladins recorded for their families, fed up with bureaucracy keeping them from getting the help they need to keep Earth safe from the Galra. 

Griffin sees the broadcast and says, “Huh, guess the cats out of the bag, huh?” Griffin sees it and thinks,  _god it’s good to see him._ Because his faith hasn’t shaken, but because he hasn’t seen Lance in three years at this point andit’s so good to see his face. 

And then when Griffin feels lighter than he has in ages just from seeing him, Lance tells his family, “I miss you guys. I miss you guys a lot.” Griffin thinks that’s the end of his tape, thinks that their going to move onto the next Paladin or maybe Colleen will start explaining more about the Galra and what they need. But instead, Lance hesitates for another moment before saying, “Griffin-” Stops, restarts, “James, I don’t know if you’re still waiting or if you’ve moved on... I mean we hadn’t been dating that long when I disappeared and I’ve been out here a while, but…I miss you too. So much. I...I love you."

And Griffin thinks,  _I love you too._ And  _I really, really love this boy._

 

 

The Galra show up.

His team gets sent out on a mission for supplies, to make sure that the Garrison can survive the wait for the Paladins. 

Griffin barely has time to jump up onto the AW-Cruiser, saying, “Okay, I’ll drive.”

Before he hears, “I’m coming with you.”

He turns to see who it is and stops.

He has met the McClain family exactly once, having been invited to spend a weekend with Lance during winter break and having been so wrapped up in the newness of their relationship that he agreed without a second thought, but the entire family is memorable and he knows who he’s looking at as soon as he sees her.

“No,” he said, already shaking his head. Because he knows Lance and he knows how much he loves his family and how much he loves Veronica in particular. Lance adores his brothers, but Veronica is special to him in a way that Marco and Luis aren't. He knows how destroyed Lance will be if she’s not here when he gets back. “No. Absolutely not, Veronica.”

Veronica smiled at him, soft for just a moment, “It’s really sweet that you care about my brother that much.” Then the smile goes sharp as she snaps, “But I’m still coming. I’m an analyst and I’m going to be your handler for this mission.”

He’s never won an argument against his McClain, so he's not that surprised when he can't out-stubborn the one that taught Lance everything he knew. 

He regrets not trying harder, though.

Because they end up leaving Veronica behind in that tunnel, knowing that it’ll lead to her death. He hates himself for it. Not just because of Lance, but because Veronica was  _good_ and she didn’t deserve to die. But he also hates knowing that this means he’ll have to look Lance in the eye someday and tell him - “I’m sorry. Your sister died because my team and I weren’t enough. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, _I’m sorry._ ” 

He still loves Lance. 

He wonders if Lance will still love him when he finds out. 

 

 

Months past.

With the world gone to shit - the two of them become a story that people tell around the Garrison, that people whisper to their children. It becomes a story of hope, something to remind the people that there are good things in the world and that the Paladins of Voltron are coming. The Blue Paladin and the boy who he loves. The boy who loves him and is waiting for him. The boy who the Blue Paladin will come back for. 

Griffin wished they wouldn’t. 

It’s hard to hear that story when he can’t shake Veronica’s death, can’t shake the guilt and the feeling that Lance might come back and stop loving him. 

Then, against all odds, Veronica  _comes back,_ with supplies and an entire rebellion _and_ the rest of the McClain family in tow. Griffin spends five minutes not being able to think anything other than,  _Thank god. Thank god. Thank god._ Part of it is selfish, because knowing Veronica is alive soothes a fear inside of him that Lance won’t want him anymore, but most of it is because Lance loves his family and he would be destroyed if he came back only to find that no one knows where they are. 

When Griffin is looking around, pulsing with the relief of Veronica’s return and trying to see if the rebels need any help with moving the supplies, he feels a hand on his elbow. And he looks over to see Lance’s mother standing next to him, the rest of Lance’s family sitting on a supply crate a few feet away. 

“Hello, Mrs. McClain,” Griffin greets, smiling despite the nerves in his stomach. 

“Hello, James,” she says. And then, “I told you to call me Mama. Everyone does.” And then she adds, “Especially people who are in love with my children.” And then she raises an eyebrow, “Unless you are not in love with one of my children?”

“No, ma'am. I am in love with one of your children,” Griffin says. 

“Even after all this? After all this time?” she asks, though there’s a look in her eyes that makes Griffin think that she already knows the answer. 

He wonders if she’s asking not for herself, but for one of Lance’s brothers or cousins. If one of them has heard the stories and doubts that the truth in them. 

He doesn’t blame them if they do.

He and Lance had only had half a year of dating. At this point, Lance has been gone longer than Griffin had even known him. 

But, well, falling in love with Lance was the easiest thing Griffin had ever done and there still isn’t anything or anyone that Griffin wants more than he wants Lance by his side and Griffin, even at twenty-two, still doesn’t know how to give up on things that he wants. 

“Yes,” Griffin tells her. “I’m still in love with Lance.”


	4. a sight for sore eyes

Griffin and his team get called out of training.

He’s not sure what he’s expecting when he gets there, but it’s not for Sam Holt to look them all in the eyes and say, “The Paladins of Voltron are in the solar system. They’re on the way to Earth now.” Griffin feels his heart beat fast in his chest, something torn between relief and excitement fueling it as he thinks,  _Lance is on his way here. Lance is finally coming back._

Then Samuel Holt says, “Griffin, you won’t be going on this mission with the rest of the team.” 

Griffin starts argues immediately. And he’s surprised when his team starts arguing as well Rizvadi claiming that that’s not fair, Kinkade pointing out that Griffin is their leader, and Leifsdottir starts pointing out that his feelings for Lance will only make him more concerned with the Paladins safety. After several minutes arguing, Griffin ends the argument by pointing out that Holt is compromised by his feelings for his daughter and that if he can stay in charge than Griffin can damn sure go retrieve the Paladins despite his relationship with Lance. 

He spends their prep time practically vibrating out of his skin. Given how hard he fought just to be on the mission, he tries not to let it effect his work, but he knows he slacks in some parts. His team picks up his slack, seeing the areas where he packs too little or too much in his haste and grabbing things that Griffin forgets about. They don’t know how much amor or ammo or supplies they need because while this is supposed to be a simple mission to get the Paladins, the Galra are out there and it could turn into something much larger. 

 

They finally leave. Griffin takes one vehicle while Rizvadi takes the other, Kinkade and Leifsdottir stay behind so that they’ll have room in the vehicles for all of the Paladins and those coming with them. 

They get to Plaht City where the Paladins have landed. Before the Galra it was a hub for the Garrison students, the place that they went on their days off and where they ended up when they snuck out. It’s where Griffin and Lance had their first date, and all of the other others too. 

They drive past the old aquarium on their way to the Paladins. 

 

He and Rizvadi reach the Paladins signal. There’s Galra sentries and Griffin looks around to find Lance ducked behind a car as he fires off what looks like a riffle. Griffin has half a second to think, because he hasn’t seen Lance in five years and he might be a good soldier but he’s also been effectively celibate for some of the most sexual years of his life ,  _well that’s hot._ Before he sees one of the Sentries charging at the vehicle and Hunk standing behind it and thinks,  _Definitely not letting that happen_  and slams on the gas pedal. 

He and Rizvadi take out the remaining sentries and the drones. 

Keith Kogane snaps at him. Griffin snaps back because Keith Kogane does not get to tell him what to do when he has no idea what he’s fucking doing. 

“Now let’s get out of here before more show up,” Griffin snaps once he’s done chewing Keith out. He turns as if to move to the vehicles again, but stops. He glances at Rizvadi, finds her giving him a huge ass grin that says, _I won’t tell anyone if you do it._

He turns, drops his gun even though it’s stupid as fuck, and knocks his helmet off before running the distance between him and Lance. He has to vault over a car to get there, but Lance had taken a step back and it gives Griffin space to land before he launches himself at him. 

He hears Kogane start, hissing, “Don’t fucking touch-”

And then he stops giving a shit because he’s got his arms around Lance, hugging him.

[by hardlynotever](https://hardlynotnever.tumblr.com/post/179916891595/30-days-of-thanks-day-8-im-willing-to-wait-for)

“You stupid fuck,” Griffin hisses, scrambling to get a good hold on him given the armor their both wearing. “You absolute idiot. You left me for five fucking years.”

And there’s a moment where Lance hesitates and Griffin wonders if he’s done something wrong before he hears Lance breath hitch and realizes that his hesitation isn’t because he doesn’t love Griffin but because he’s surprised to see him and overly emotional. 

But then Lance is moving, knocking his own helmet off, which Griffin immediately takes advantage of by shoving his face into Lance’s neck and pulling himself closer to him, and wrapping his arms around Griffin as he says, “I am so sorry. I missed you so much, oh my god."

Griffin allows himself a few more moments to hold Lance, but then he lets go of the hug so that he can get his hands on Lance’s face and maneuver them to look at each other. “I love you. And if you ever do this shit to me again, I’m going to kill you before any aliens get the chance to.”

“Okay,” Lance agrees, arms still wrapped around Griffin. And then he says, “I love you too.”

And something rushes through Griffin, because Lance is here in his  _fucking arms_  and this isn’t the first time Lance has told him he loved him but this is the first time he’s gotten to hear it in person instead of on a video tape. And suddenly it doesn’t matter that Rizvadi is behind him or Kogane or that Griffin doesn’t know half the people here. 

He uses his grip on Lance’s face to smash their lips together. It’s messy and uncoordinated and Griffin is relieved to find that Lance doesn’t seem any more experienced at this than he was before, but mostly Griffin just feels happiness because _holy shit he’s kissing Lance again._

“Griffin,” Rizvadi says, breaking through the moment. 

Griffin allows himself to ignore her for just a moment before he pulls back.

He ignores the way the rest of the Paladins and their crew seem to be watching them, Hunk the only one who doesn’t look completely gobsmacked by everything, and says, “Alright, let’s go.”

There’s a quiet moment before he hears Lance say, sounding a little embarrassed, “Keith.” And Griffin looks over his shoulder, eyes narrowed as he tries to figure out why exactly his boyfriend is saying Keith’s name after that, before Lance says, “How do you want us to split up?” and Griffin remembers being told that Keith Kogane is one of Voltrons leaders. 

“Um,” Keith says, still looking at Lance with something like shock and what Griffin thinks might be a hint of betrayal. There’s another moment before he finally shakes it off and says, “Okay. Shiro, you go with the Alteans and Cosmo in that one,” Keith says, pointing over to Griffin’s vehicle. “The rest of us will take the other one together.” 

Lance looks like he wants to argue for a second, like he wants to push Keith to put him in Griffin’s vehicle, but in the end he just sighs and shakes his head. 

“Alright, let’s go guys,” Lance says, making a motion with his hand. When the others start moving immediately, Griffin realizes that Lance has to be pretty high in Voltron’s hierarchy as well. There’s something like pride that flares in his chest - because Griffin has always known that Lance was going to be great - but Griffin forces himself to stamp that down for a little while. 

Instead he focuses on the people moving towards him, straightening his shoulders and locking himself down. 

Lance is back and Griffin is happy about it, but they’ve had their immediate reunion. 

It’s time to buckle down and get to work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The art in this chapter is by [hardlynotever](https://hardlynotnever.tumblr.com/post/179916891595/30-days-of-thanks-day-8-im-willing-to-wait-for) over on tumblr! I am still incredibly flattered that someone created art for one of my fics and everyone should go let them know how amazing this piece is!!


	5. friendship never ends

****Hunk never really finds out about Lance and Griffin. He just kind of always knows. In fact, he knows about Griffin’s crush even before Lance does. Because while Lance was busy holding court in the cafeteria, Hunk sat next to his best friend. And when Lance was pushing himself into other’s space to get their attention, Hunk was looking around and trying to avoid the embarrassment of whatever pick up line Lance was going to choose.

So it’s Hunk that notices, ages before they’re moved into the Fighter program, that James Griffin is always watching Lance. He never approaches, but when Lance is doing his thing Griffin is across the cafeteria with his head turned in their direction, listening to the people around him even as he focused on watching Lance with something soft in his eyes that Hunk wouldn’t normally associate with him. 

Lance’s crush doesn’t start until their in fighter class, until Griffin is something more than just ‘that kid behind Keith in the fighter rankings’. And then it’s Hunk that sits on the end of Lance’s bed with popcorn in his lap, watching Lance roll around his bed and groan about how cute Griffin is. And then it’s Hunk who walks beside Lance and sees him frown when he realizes that Griffin’s getting overly frustrated with the new simulator and runs off to poke at him, to try and make him smile, even though Griffin’s snapping at everyone else who so much as looks at him. And then it’s Hunk who drops a wrench on his foot when Lance burst into their room screaming about how Griffin had caught him in the hallway and ASKED HIM OUT HUNK. 

Hunk is there for their first date when Lance shows up practically glowing with happiness, he’s there when Lance comes back after the date that they share their first kiss - hand hovering over his lips and a giddy smile on his face, he’s there for the day when they become something more than just ‘boys who go on dates together’ and Lance introduces them - because despite Hunk and Griffin already knowing each other, he wants the chance to call Griffin his boyfriend. 

Hunk is there for the good and the bad, for the moments when their looking at each other with gooey eyes and holding hands, for the moments when Keith Kogane’s shadow looms to big over both of them and they snap at each other because the pressure of always being second-best is just too much too handle. 

 

 

Pidge finds out fifteen hours after being placed on Hunk and Lance’s team, fifteen hours after moving into their team dorm. 

It happens like this:

Pidge has only been asleep for four hours, having been forced by Hunk and Lance to stay up for a movie marathon in the name of team bonding, when they were woken up by knocking the door. They were still trying to figure out what was going on when they hear Hunk groan out, “Lance, you didn’t tell him not to come over this morning?”

“I forgot,” Lance said. He sounded just as miserable as Hunk did, just as miserable as Pidge felt. There was another knock. Lance let out a loud, dramatic groan. There was a creaking before a thump, Lance jumping off the bunk bed he and Hunk shared, and then the shuffling of feet moving across the ground. Pidge heard him mumble, “This would be way sweeter if I wasn’t sleep deprived.”

“Just get him to stop,” Hunk whined. 

Though they were exhausted and had spent the rest of the conversation with their head buried in their pillow, attempting to get back to sleep, Pidge’s curiosity struck and they turned their head to see who was knocking on the door. 

Lance pulled it open to reveal a boy on the other side with dark hair that fell to the side of one eye and gray eyes. He smiled at Lance, leaning in to press their lips together in a quick kiss. 

 _Boyfriend,_  Pidge thought as the two of them started conversing in low voices, too soft for them to hear. A moment later, Lance grabbed onto the boys hand and pulled him into the room with the rest of them before closing the door. Pidge buried their head back in their pillow, not wanting to deal with introductions this early, but they could hear the sounds of two people climbing up the rickty ladder leading to the top bunk. _Definitely his boyfriend._

 

 

Coran finds out during a cleaning session with Lance. The two of them had gotten into the habit of talking about the past while they wiped the healing pods down. Coran would talk about Altea, the things the missed and the things that didn’t. He talked about Alfor and Allura’s mother and about Allura herself as a child. 

Lance talked about the things he missed on Earth, but mostly he told stories about his family. There were so many people in his family and so many stories to go along with each person that he never ran out, always had one on the top of his head that he hadn’t told before. 

He was telling Coran about his oldest brother Marco, saying, “When Griffin came to visit during Christmas Break, Marco spent the entire weekend making these absurd thinly veiled threats until Papa threatened to break  _him_  in half if he didn’t cut if out.” 

And Coran asked, “Who is Griffin? You’ve never told me about him before.” Lance was quiet for a moment, hesitating as if he hadn’t realized he’d used the name and didn’t know if he wanted to talk about it. Coran tried to assure him that he didn’t have to, saying, “My boy, if you don’t want to explain then-”

“I think I do want to,” Lance said. “I just…I used to think that it would be better not to talk or think about him. I thought it wouldn’t hurt that way, you know? But I think that it’s actually just hurting me more.” There was a quiet moment, Lance looking down at his hands, before he murmured quietly, “I’ve never been very good at not talking about the people I love.”

“You love this boy then?” Coran asked, nudging gently. If Lance wanted to talk, but was finding it hard to find the words than Coran would help him with them. 

“Yes,” Lance said without any hesitation. “Absolutely.”

 

 

Shiro finds out when he gets his clones memories. 

The clone found out like this:

Voltron was on a planet of empaths. And, in what had become typical fashion, after freeing the planet from Galran rule they had decided to throw a party to honor the Paladins.

Shiro has spent most of the party on the fringes, back against the wall. He’d spent a while in the thick of it with his friends, but all of the socializing and all of the people moving around him and all of the noise coming from the music and chattering guests had quickly become too much for him. 

He’s watching Lance flirt with one of the planet’s inhabitants, trying to figure out if he should step in or not. Lance’s flirting was harmless on most planets, but there had been a few where his advances had meant something deeper or been offensive. Shiro didn’t want to end the night with an ally turned into an enemy or by trying to break Lance out of an accidental engagement. 

Before he could decide which way to go, he heard someone off to his left asking, “The Blue one…you feel what I feel, yes?”

“Yes,” someone answered them. “He is lonely, hurt. Heartsick, I think. In love with someone that’s not here.”

“His behavior is strange for someone feeling that way, isn’t it?”

“No,” the other said, sounding much sadder now. “I think this…this is very normal for someone who feels the way this boy feels. He desperately wants the man he loves, but with him so far away it’s easier to do this. It’s easier to flirt with strangers than to remember the man he wants.”

Of course, the clone doesn’t realize who it is that Lance is heartsick over, but he knows that Lance  _is_  deeply in love with someone, knows that Lance misses them like crazy. 

So when Shiro, newly transplanted into his clones body, arrives on Earth with the others and one of the soldiers that comes to meet them drops his weapons and takes his helmet off, runs at Lance looking desperate and relieved, and then latches onto him, looking like even that isn’t enough, Shiro knows that this is the boy. He knows, without a doubt, that this boy is the boy that Lance had been missing, this is the boy that Lance is in love with him. 

And Shiro feels a flood of warm relief, because he doesn’t know if Adam is waiting for him or if Adam meant it when he said he wouldn’t, but he knows that this boy waited for Lance and Shiro is happy to see how happy Lance looks as he wraps himself around the other boy as well. 

 

 

Keith finds out when he sees the kiss and he feels…betrayal. 

He and Lance are nothing more than friends and Keith doesn’t hold any feelings for him other than platonic ones, but Lance…Lance and Keith  _are_  close. Lance is, without a doubt, Keith’s best friend and Keith wouldn’t survive leading Voltron without Lance by his side to help him. 

And Keith can’t help feeling betrayed because Keith has told Lance things he hasn’t told anyone else, has put a trust in Lance that he hasn’t in anyone else, but Lance kept this from him. 

He doesn’t really care that Lance is dating Griffin - part of Keith still hates him but mostly Keith just  _doesn’t give a shit_  anymore because he has shit to worry about other than some punk kid from the Garrison - but he cares that Lance hid it from him. Because as time goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that Lance and Griffin weren’t just…crushes or casual boyfriend. It’s something more serious than that and Lance  _didn’t tell him._

In the end, Keith and Lance fight. It starts off as a friendly spar, but Keith’s angry and frustrated. Lance knows it, has been dealing with a snappy Keith for days now, and he gives as good as he gets. They fight until their both bruised and bleeding, until their chests are heaving as they lay side-by-side on the ground with their limbs spread out. 

And then, Lance says, “I couldn’t tell you about him, Keith.”

“Why?” Keith asks, because that’s all he wants to know. All he wants is a reason why Lance kept this thing from him, a reason why Lance didn’t trust him the way he trusts Lance. 

“Because I love him and he was galaxies away,” Lance said. “And…before we left he hated you, Keith, and you didn’t exactly like him either. Talking to you about him felt like betraying him.”

There’s a quiet moment and then Keith says, “I still kind of hate him.”

And Lance laughs before saying, “He still kind of hates you too.”

Then Keith turns onto his side so he can see Lance and Lance turns his head so he’s looking at Keith. And he says, “But I’ll try for you.”

And Lance smiles at him, grinning widely and says, “Thank you.”

 

 

Allura approaches Griffin in a quiet moment after they arrive back at the Garrison. She did not know about him before the kiss. And fresh off Lotor’s betrayal, she feels like she has to tell him what Lance has been up to in space. She feels like she has to tell him about all of the flirting with the other girls and with her, about the moment when Lance’s bayard changed to a broadsword and Allura thought maybe they were headed somewhere before Lotor caught her attention again. 

She approaches him, quiet and soft and feeling regretful for what she’s about to tell him. 

To her surprise, Griffin barely blinks when the words come out of her mouth. 

Instead he shrugs, dismisses her. Tells her that that’s just how Lance is. 

And when Allura looks back at him, eyes wide and wondering out-loud how Griffin can be okay with Lance flirting with other people, Griffin says, “We’ve already talked about it. I know what he did and why he did it.” And then he adds, “And none of that matters, because he was in love with me the entire time and I was in love with him. We’re together now and I’m not letting him go again without a fight.” 


	6. what we've been waiting for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gets slightly NSFW but it's not explicit so I'm not tagging it as such
> 
> Also this kinda ignores that the Paladins appear to attack Sendak like…immediately? But honestly, they GAVE SHIRO AN ARM? There had to be days/hours before Pidge set up things with Sendak’s memories, time for them to interrogate the memories, they had to set up the surgery, days of planning for the mission for Hunks parents, the actual day of the surgery, an admittedly short adjustment time for Shiro, and then time to do more than just say “the plan is for you all to fucking astral project into your lions.”

They get back to the Garrison and Griffin watches as Lance collapses in front of his family, watches as they fold him into their arms. It brings a smile to his face, because he knows how desperate he was to see Lance and he knows his family is feeling that but ten times more intense. 

Still, Lance’s mother looks up from her son’s body after a moment and finds him. She gives him a look, one that he knows is telling him to join them. 

Griffin appreciates the offer, but he shakes his head and gestures to his cruiser which the Princess and Shiro are stepping out of. He still has work to do. He can’t stop just to join in a reunion. If he did, he’d probably get thrown off any mission relating to the Paladins for the rest of the war and that was the last thing he needed. 

 

 

Things are not perfect. The Paladins are soldiers, but it becomes rapidly apparently that they aren’t Garrison cadets anymore, not Garrison soldiers. There are clashes in their chains of command. The Paladins defer to Princess Allura and Shiro for their plans, but Keith in the field and ultimately it’s Lance responsible for making sure that the plans are carried through. Hunk and Pidge seem to be the only ones that are really followers, but even then the two of them step into the foreground when it comes to their areas of expertise. 

They have little respect or patience for the Garrison’s way of doing things. 

It causes some tension. 

But Griffin and Lance do their best not to let it effect them outside of command meetings or the missions they end up on. 

Instead they spend their free time trying to relearn how to be together, trying to remember what it’s like to be with each other instead of galaxies apart. 

Lance tells stories of space, of Arusians trying to sacrifice themselves to the Altean Princess and mermaids and castles trying to kill him, and Griffin tells him about senior year at the garrison, about flying Altean tech, about life on Earth now that the Galra have taken over. Lance tells Griffin about the year he’d spent flirting with anything and anyone he saw because thinking about Griffin hurt so much, about the three years of time he’s missed, about the year and a half they spent trying to get back to Earth and how Lance thought about him each day. Griffin tells Lance about waiting for him for five years, about the moments when his friends encouraged him to move on and the moments when everything seemed so distant that Griffin almost gave in to blind days and hook-ups before remembering nothing would be the same if it wasn’t with Lance. 

They begin to learn the new things about each other and remember the little things they forgot. Griffin remembers Lance’s love of garlic knots when he whines about their not being any in the Garrison and how he desperately wants one, remembers how lazy and touch-y Lance gets when he’s sleepy, remembers how much Lance likes the small difference in their heights and how he loves tucking Griffin up against him. He learns how Lance has learned to focus over the years, learns how Lance now speaks in a bizarre mixture of English and Spanish and Altean, learns how Lance has come to treasure every bit of shampoo and conditioner and lotion that he gets his hand on and how he’ll make it last as long as possible. 

Griffin relearns the feeling of Lance’s hand in his, the same warmth but with more callouses on his fingers from triggers that he’d pulled. Griffin relearns the feeling of Lance’s arms wrapping around him, the same positions as always but his arms broader and his hold a little tighter now. Griffin relearns the feeling of Lance’s lips against his, soft and chapped like they were as teenagers but the kisses growing more confident as they remember that they’ve waited years for each other and there’s no reason to hesitate the way they did before. 

They’d had a sex life at the Garrison, but not much of one considering they both roomed with two other people. It was harder to manage to get two people out of a room than just one. So when that starts up again, rather quickly after their reunion if Griffin’s being honest, it’s less about the old and more about the new. Things are slow and awkward going, because they’re both essentially seventeen year olds when it comes to sex, but eventually they grow more comfortable. Griffin learns how Lance’s hip bones feel under his fingertips, held in one place. He learns how Lance’s forehead feels pressed between his shoulder blades, his breath ghosting against Griffin’s skin as he presses in to him. He learns how Lance’s thighs feel under his fingers as Griffin’s nails dig into his skin, trying to deal with the slow tease of Lance sliding down. He learns how it feels when they collapse together, sweaty and messy but content to spend a few minutes in each other’s arms. 

It’s not the same as it was when they were seventeen. They aren’t the boys that they were back then, they’ve both changed too much for their relationship to be the way it was then. Griffin misses those days sometimes, misses how much easier things were, but he loves the way things are now and he knows that their relationship is better now than it was before. 

 

 

In the minutes before they all leave to destroy the Zaiforge cannons, Griffin makes his way to Lance and Veronica. 

“Lance,” he calls out, catching Lance’s attention before his boyfriend can get into the vehicle. Lance turns. When he sees Griffin coming towards him, he hops back down and meets Griffin halfway. 

“Hey,” Lance greets when they’ve reached each other. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to say bye, since I didn’t get to say it last time.”

“I’m not disappearing like I did last time,” Lance points out. Griffin knows that Lance’s word isn’t enough to ensure that something won’t happen to him, but it still soothes something in his soul. “I’m going to go to base one, get Red, and destroy my cannon. You’ll drop Keith off at his base, meet up with your team, and destroy your cannon. Then we’ll meet back here.”

“I hope so,” Griffin said. And then he leaned forward, bringing them closer together so that he could brush their lips together. He stayed close to Lance for a moment after the kiss, murmured, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Lance returned, leaning in for another kiss. 

They rested their foreheads together afterwards, sharing a quiet moment. 

After a few seconds, Griffin took a deep breath and leaned backwards. 

“Alright,” he said. “Time to save the god damn world.”

Lance let out a laugh, nodding in agreement. 

 

 

Predictably, things don’t go the way they plan. 


	7. is this the way it ends now?

For a few moments, everything seems fine.

Griffin drops Keith off with his Lion,and he has to admit that the lions are MAYBE a little bit cooler than the MFEs, and uses the Faunatonium to get to the cannon the MFEs are supposed to destroy. There’s been shooting coming from one of the other comms, but he hasn’t had an opportunity to see who it is and it’s not really surprising that a few Galra ships would find one of them. He has faith in the Paladins ability to handle it.

The Paladins are slowly checking in, telling everyone they’ve dropped their pilots off as well. 

He doesn’t hear Lance. And he has two unworried seconds to think, _Isn’t the Red Lion supposed to be the fastest?_

Then he hears, Shiro, “Lance, where are you? Can you hear me?”

And then Lance says, “Veronica look out!” And there’s screaming across the comms before it cuts out completely.

One of the female Paladins shouts Lance’s name, high and worried, but there’s a numbness that settles over Griffin. There’s more screaming, the Paladins frantically trying to get a hold of Lance, but to Griffin their voices sound distant, like their under water.

Griffin doesn’t know how long that goes on, how long he’s carrying something cold and heavy in his stomach or how long he’s flying on autopilot because he can’t manage to clear his dead and stop thinking about what it means that Lance cut out like that.

But eventually he hears Lance’s voice cut through the fog in his head, “Red Lion, checking in!”

Griffin takes a deep breath, steadying himself and trying to clear the fear running through him.

 _Alright_ , he tells himself after a beat _. Alright._

Anger is better than fear, he decides. Better to channel all that into destroying the MFEs Zaiforge cannon than to go totally useless with fear.

 

They don’t destroy the cannons, but the cannons doesn’t fire on Earth.

Voltron gets hit by all six cannons.

The Galra take the Paladins.

The Galra take  _Lance._

In the aftermath, Griffin doesn’t get the chance to shut down, not even for half a moment. The Garrison is shutting the shield down to power the Atlas. Griffin and his team have a mission and it’s one that they can not fail. 

Not having time to shut down doesn’t mean that Griffin doesn’t think about it, though. 

There’s a voice whispering in the back of his head, a mantra that continues regardless of whether Griffin is helping move supplies or helping personnel board or flying his MFE as the Garrison mounts it’s counterattack -  _Lance is gone again, Lance is gone again, Lance is gone again._

The Lions escape the Galra. 

The Paladins don’t. 

But knowing that Lance is alive is enough for the voice in the back of Griffin’s head to quiet a bit. 

 

The Paladins escape. 

The voice stops, starts again. 

Now it reminds him constantly that Lance is safe for now, is here for now, but that the battle is not over and the Paladins are in an insurmountable amount of danger. 

Griffin flies his MFE to the Atlas for a charge, knowing that Lance is here now but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be at the end of the battle. 

The second he’s docked, he fires off the problems that have popped up as a result of the damage he’s taken. And then he leaves the mechanics to their work so that he won’t be in their way. 

He wants to get back out there as soon as possible, wants to get back out there and do his best to make sure that the Paladins get to come home.

 

Voltron is pinned, the Atlas unable to get to Sendak. 

The MFEs are charged and Griffin flies down to Earth to take out the cannons targeting the Paladins. 

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t thinking of Lance the entire time, thinking about what would happen to them if the earth-to-air cannons destroy one of the Lions.

Knowing that failure could lead to the death of his lover is a powerful motivator. 

He knows that’s a little selfish, to be motivated by the death of one person rather than the possible destruction of Earth and all of it’s civilians, but Griffin can’t bring himself to care that much. 

He’s always been a little selfish when it comes to making sure he gets what he wants. 

 

They lose contact with the Lions after the shields they’ve been using against the cannons break. 

Griffin tries not to think about what that means, focuses on destroying the rest of the MFEs targets. 

Not thinking about it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t let out a sigh of relief when the Lions come back - starting with Red. 

 

Sendak’s ship crashes. 

Keith kills him.

Griffin gets a moment to think,  _Lance and I are both safe. We’re both here. We’re both alive._ He doesn’t really get to feel the relief that should come with that statement before something else starts plummeting through the atmosphere, going directly for where the Lions landed.

Griffin isn’t around to see it, but he hears from the Atlas that it’s some kind of giant mech, something similar-ish to Voltron. 

Griffin can’t help the way he laughs when he hears - angry and heartbroken and grief stricken. He knows what it is the be a soldier, but he can’t help wishing that all of this would  _ **stop**_. 

 

The MFEs are sent back out to draw fire. 

Griffin does it without a single heistation. 

Anything to make sure Lance gets through this.

 

In the years that come after Griffin’s nightmares feature two things:

The Lions pushing the other mech into the sky, Griffin watching from the MFEs charging stations with a cold stone in his stomach, wondering how this will end and if this is the moment when he loses Lance for good.

And then the Lions plummeting back down to the ground, thinking that this is the moment when he loses Lance, thinking that this is the moment that something happens which Lance can’t come back from, thinking that after this there will be no Lance to wait for.


	8. you and me

They send rescue teams out to each of the crashed Lions. Most people in the Garrison think it’s pointless, believe that the Paladins are all dead, but they have to go to check, to make sure, to be there on the off chance that the Paladins _are_  still alive.

That doesn’t stop Griffin and Veronica from racing to the team that’s being sent out to the Red Lion. There’s only room for one of them to join the team sent to check on Lance. While Griffin knows Veronica loves Lance just as much as he does, he’s fully prepared to knock her out if it means he gets to go out there.  Griffin has been trying very carefully not to think about what state they’re likely to find Lance in, but he’s not stupid. And whether Lance is dead or alive, he’s determined to be there when they extract him from Red, determined to be there for the boy he loves whether he knows it or not. Later, Griffin will admit to Veronica just how far he was willing to go to get that seat and Veronica will laugh, slinging her arm around him and telling him that its cute that he thought he could knock her out.

In the end, there are no fisticuffs. The two of them get there within moments of each other, but Veronica must see something in his eyes because after a moment of staring at each other she backs downs. Tells him to bring her little brother back to her.

Griffin tells her that he will even though he knows he can’t promise that. He tells her that he will because he’s hoping desperately that he can.

 

Halfway to the Red Lion’s crash site, Keith wakes up. Hunk comes next, then Princess Allura. The three of them manage to climb their way out of their Lions, heavily injured but still able to get out.

The Red Team has almost reached the Lion when Pidge wakes up. She’s been knocked around pretty badly and thinks she has a concussion, something which the rescue team convince her means she needs to stay put and wait for extraction rather than fighting her way out the way the others did, but she’s okay.

It gives Griffin some kind of hope. Red and Green are similar sizes. If Pidge, who is significantly smaller than Lance, can get out of this, than maybe Lance has gotten out of this mess im bad shape, but still okay.

 

Lance is not okay.

 

Between the crash with Veronica, the battle against the bases the Zaiforge cannons were at, the battle against Sendak, the blast his Lion had taken after the shielding, getting up and pushing himself after that before then others, the battle against the Altean Mech, and then the fall….

The Red Lion was made to withstand fire and lava, but she’s small and she had already been beaten all to hell when the crash happened. She had never stood a chance at protecting the Paladin flying her, but especially not when her pilot had already been beaten to hell and back.

And Lance is very much not okay. He’s the only one of the Paladins that doesn’t wake up at the crash site, the only one that needs extraction because their knocked out, the only one that they have to prep an emergency surgery room for.

But he’s breathing and Griffin tries to hope for the best as he watches them airlift Lance out of the desert, trying to get him to surgery to repair the organs punctured by his shattered ribs.

But it’s hard to have hope after everything and Griffin doesn’t know if he’ll have any left after this. He knows he won’t if Lance dies.

 

Griffin doesn’t leave Lance’s side until he’s woken up.

The Garrison tries to tell him he has to come back for a briefing with the other MFEs pilot. They send Iverson, because Iverson had taught Griffin for years and he admires the man. Griffin bites his head off just for stepping into Lance’s hospital room - because Griffin admires Iverson, but Iverson was shit to Lance when they were in the Garrison and he has no right to be there - and then he tears into him for daring to suggest that Griffin leave the boy he loves when there’s no guarantee Lance is ever going to wake up, when he could slip from between Griffin’s fingers any moment. He attacks him so viciously, with nothing but words, that Iverson takes a physical step backwards.

Luis, Lance’s brother between Veronica and Marco, lets out a low whistle when Iverson is walking out. Griffin ignores him as he settles back into the chair next to Lance’s bed, taking Lance’s hand in his and pressing soft kisses against his knuckles.

Nothing is pulling him away from Lance, not this time.

The McClain’s rotate through the room, one of them always with Lance and Griffin. Everyone from Lance’s father to Veronica to Lance’s cousin Isabella to Marco’s children assures Griffin that he can leave for a little while, that they’ll be sure to tell him if something happens.

Griffin waves each of them off, shaking his head. They are a family and it’s easy for them to trust that another family member will take care of Lance, will watch over him in a way that only family can. Griffin grew close to the family after Veronica brought them to the Garrison together, brought together by the love they have for Lance and the desire to talk about him with people who really knew him, but he can’t trust that he won’t get lost in the McClain’s insane family phone-tree.

They seem to understand, though.

Griffin finds himself a little surprised when they start taking care of him the way they take care of each other. Veronica comes to relieve Lance’s father after a shift at the Garrison and brings Griffin a burger and fries from a nearby fast food restaurant. Marco’s wife comes in with the kids, she’s supposed to be relieving Marco and sending the kids off with him but they wanted to see uncle Lance for a while, and the kids crawl onto Griffin immediately, trying to comfort him the way they comfort their father and grandparents and Luis and Veronica. Luis relieves Lance’s mother, bringing with him a bag of deodorant and toothpaste and other small hygiene products for Griffin to use in the tiny bathroom connected to Lance’s room.

It’s nice. He understands why they mean so much to Lance. Griffin loves his family, but they aren’t close like this. He hopes that one day he’ll get a chance to be part of this family, to become a McClain the same way that Marco’s wife has.

 

A week passes.

Lance wakes up with Griffin on one side of him and his father the other.

Griffin watches as Lance’s father ducks down, tears streaming down his face as he embraces the son he thought he had lost, and gathers Lance in his arms for a tight hug.

Griffin feels so profoundly  _relieved_ and  _happy_  that he starts crying as well. 

And when Lance’s father lets him go, Lance looks over at Griffin. He calls him love in this soft affectionate voice as he reaches up to wipe tears from Griffin’s face and apologizes for scaring him. Griffin just shakes his head, squeezing Lance’s hand harder. Lance’s father slips out of the room phone in hand so he can call his wife and Valentina, and Griffin barely notices because he’s so focused on Lance. He leans in to press his lips against Lance’s, kissing a boy that he was worried he’d never get to kiss again. And when he pulls away, he rests his forehead against Lance’s and mumbles that if Lance  _ **ever**_  does this to him again, he’s going to kick his ass all the way across the solar system. 

Lance laughs, the sound music to Griffin’s ears after everything, and nods. 

 

Griffin knows that it’s a promise Lance is likely to break, knows that Lance is a Paladin of Voltron and he’s going to have mission that will get him hurt. But it means something that Lance tries to reassure him anyway.

And Griffin is going to be there every time Lance is hurt, holding his hand and waiting for him to open his eyes. It hurts to sit there without knowing how things will turn out, but Griffin will do it every single time without hesitation. 

Griffin is hoping to stay by Lance’s side, when he’s injured but also when he’s sick and when he’s healthy, for the rest of their, hopefully, long lives. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!   
> This is INTENDED to be the final chapter of this fic so I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter! And thank you to everyone who's been supporting this series! It's been a really fun quick project and I really hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it for you! 
> 
> That being said, if anyone wants some small specific pieces than you can let me know on [tumblr](http://thepackwantsthed.tumblr.com/) and I'll be happy to write something for you!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Raynaud](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18711697) by [Aivynh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aivynh/pseuds/Aivynh)




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